Teens and social media: Key findings from Pew Research Center surveys in USA

Today’s teens are navi­ga­ting a digi­tal lands­cape unlike the one expe­ri­en­ced by their prede­ces­sors, parti­cu­larly when it comes to the perva­sive presence of social media. In 2022, Pew Rese­arch Center fiel­ded an in-depth survey asking Ameri­can teens – and their parents – about their expe­ri­en­ces with and views toward social media. Here are key findings from the survey:

Majo­ri­ties of teens report ever using YouTube, TikTok, Insta­gram and Snap­chat. YouTube is the plat­form most commonly used by teens, with 95% of those ages 13 to 17 saying they have ever used it, accor­ding to a Center survey conduc­ted April 14-May 4, 2022, that asked about 10 online plat­forms. Two-thirds of teens report using TikTok, follo­wed by roughly six-in-ten who say they use Insta­gram (62%) and Snap­chat (59%). Much smaller shares of teens say they have ever used Twit­ter (23%), Twitch (20%), What­sApp (17%), Reddit (14%) and Tumblr (5%).

Face­book use among teens drop­ped from 71% in 2014–15 to 32% in 2022. Twit­ter and Tumblr also expe­ri­en­ced decli­nes in teen users during that span, but Insta­gram and Snap­chat saw nota­ble incre­a­ses.

TikTok use is more common among Black teens and among teen girls. For exam­ple, roughly eight-in-ten Black teens (81%) say they use TikTok, compa­red with 71% of Hispa­nic teens and 62% of White teens. And Hispa­nic teens (29%) are more likely than Black (19%) or White teens (10%) to report using What­sApp. (There were not enough Asian teens in the sample to analyze sepa­ra­tely.)

Teens’ use of certain social media plat­forms also varies by gender. Teen girls are more likely than teen boys to report using TikTok (73% vs. 60%), Insta­gram (69% vs. 55%) and Snap­chat (64% vs. 54%). Boys are more likely than girls to report using YouTube (97% vs. 92%), Twitch (26% vs. 13%) and Reddit (20% vs. 8%).

Majo­ri­ties of teens use YouTube and TikTok every day, and some report using these sites almost cons­tantly. About three-quar­ters of teens (77%) say they use YouTube daily, while a smaller majo­rity of teens (58%) say the same about TikTok. About half of teens use Insta­gram (50%) or Snap­chat (51%) at least once a day, while 19% report daily use of Face­book.

Some teens report using these plat­forms almost cons­tantly. For exam­ple, 19% say they use YouTube almost cons­tantly, while 16% and 15% say the same about TikTok and Snap­chat, respec­ti­vely.

More than half of teens say it would be diffi­cult for them to give up social media. About a third of teens (36%) say they spend too much time on social media, while 55% say they spend about the right amount of time there and just 8% say they spend too little time. Girls are more likely than boys to say they spend too much time on social media (41% vs. 31%).

Teens are rela­ti­vely divi­ded over whet­her it would be hard or easy for them to give up social media. Some 54% say it would be very or somew­hat hard, while 46% say it would be very or somew­hat easy.

Girls are more likely than boys to say it would be diffi­cult for them to give up social media (58% vs. 49%). Older teens are also more likely than youn­ger teens to say this: 58% of those ages 15 to 17 say it would be very or somew­hat hard to give up social media, compa­red with 48% of those ages 13 to 14.

Teens are more likely to say social media has had a nega­tive effect on others than on them­sel­ves. Some 32% say social media has had a mostly nega­tive effect on people their age, while 9% say this about social medi­a’s effect on them­sel­ves.

Conver­sely, teens are more likely to say these plat­forms have had a mostly posi­tive impact on their own life than on those of their peers. About a third of teens (32%) say social media has had a mostly posi­tive effect on them perso­nally, while roughly a quar­ter (24%) say it has been posi­tive for other people their age.

Still, the largest shares of teens say social media has had neit­her a posi­tive nor nega­tive effect on them­sel­ves (59%) or on other teens (45%). These patterns are consis­tent across demo­grap­hic groups.

Teens are more likely to report posi­tive than nega­tive expe­ri­en­ces in their social media use. Majo­ri­ties of teens report expe­ri­en­cing each of the four posi­tive expe­ri­en­ces asked about: feeling more connec­ted to what is going on in their friends’ lives (80%), like they have a place where they can show their crea­tive side (71%), like they have people who can support them through tough times (67%), and that they are more accep­ted (58%).

When it comes to nega­tive expe­ri­en­ces, 38% of teens say that what they see on social media makes them feel overw­hel­med because of all the drama. Roughly three-in-ten say it makes them feel like their friends are leaving them out of things (31%) or feel pres­sure to post content that will get lots of comments or likes (29%). And 23% say that what they see on social media makes them feel worse about their own life.

There are seve­ral gender diffe­ren­ces in the expe­ri­en­ces teens report having while on social media. Teen girls are more likely than teen boys to say that what they see on social media makes them feel a lot like they have a place to express their crea­ti­vity or like they have people who can support them. Howe­ver, girls also report encoun­te­ring some of the pres­su­res at higher rates than boys. Some 45% of girls say they feel overw­hel­med because of all the drama on social media, compa­red with 32% of boys. Girls are also more likely than boys to say social media has made them feel like their friends are leaving them out of things (37% vs. 24%) or feel worse about their own life (28% vs. 18%).

When it comes to abuse on social media plat­forms, many teens think crimi­nal char­ges or perma­nent bans would help a lot. Half of teens think crimi­nal char­ges or perma­nent bans for users who bully or harass others on social media would help a lot to reduce harass­ment and bullying on these plat­forms. 

About four-in-ten teens say it would help a lot if social media compa­nies proac­ti­vely dele­ted abusive posts or requi­red social media users to use their real names and pictu­res. Three-in-ten teens say it would help a lot if school districts moni­to­red students’ social media acti­vity for bullying or harass­ment.

Some teens – espe­ci­ally older girls – avoid posting certain things on social media because of fear of embar­rass­ment or other reasons. Roughly four-in-ten teens say they often or some­ti­mes decide not to post somet­hing on social media because they worry people might use it to embar­rass them (40%) or because it does not align with how they like to repre­sent them­sel­ves on these plat­forms (38%). A third of teens say they avoid posting certain things out of concern for offen­ding others by what they say, while 27% say they avoid posting things because it could hurt their chan­ces when applying for scho­ols or jobs.

These concerns are more preva­lent among older teen girls. For exam­ple, roughly half of girls ages 15 to 17 say they often or some­ti­mes decide not to post somet­hing on social media because they worry people might use it to embar­rass them (50%) or because it doesn’t fit with how they’d like to repre­sent them­sel­ves on these sites (51%), compa­red with smaller shares among youn­ger girls and among boys overall.

Many teens do not feel like they are in the driver’s seat when it comes to contro­lling what infor­ma­tion social media compa­nies collect about them. Six-in-ten teens say they think they have little (40%) or no control (20%) over the perso­nal infor­ma­tion that social media compa­nies collect about them. Anot­her 26% aren’t sure how much control they have. Just 14% of teens think they have a lot of control.

Despite many feeling a lack of control, teens are largely uncon­cer­ned about compa­nies collec­ting their infor­ma­tion. Only 8% are extre­mely concer­ned about the amount of perso­nal infor­ma­tion that social media compa­nies might have and 13% are very concer­ned. Still, 44% of teens say they have little or no concern about how much these compa­nies might know about them.

Only around one-in-five teens think their parents are highly worried about their use of social media. Some 22% of teens think their parents are extre­mely or very worried about them using social media. But a larger share of teens (41%) think their parents are either not at all (16%) or a little worried (25%) about them using social media. About a quar­ter of teens (27%) fall more in the middle, saying they think their parents are somew­hat worried.

Many teens also beli­eve there is a discon­nect between paren­tal percep­ti­ons of social media and teens’ lived reali­ties. Some 39% of teens say their expe­ri­en­ces on social media are better than parents think, and 27% say their expe­ri­en­ces are worse. A third of teens say parents’ views are about right.

Nearly half of parents with teens (46%) are highly worried that their child could be expo­sed to expli­cit content on social media. Parents of teens are more likely to be extre­mely or very concer­ned about this than about social media causing mental health issues like anxi­ety, depres­sion or lower self-esteem. Some parents also fret about time manage­ment problems for their teen stem­ming from social media use, such as wasting time on these sites (42%) and being distrac­ted from comple­ting home­work (38%).

Note: Here are the ques­ti­ons used for this report, along with respon­ses, and its metho­do­logy.

CORREC­TION (May 17, 2023): In a previ­ous version of this post, the percen­ta­ges of teens using Insta­gram and Snap­chat daily were trans­po­sed in the text. The origi­nal chart was correct. This change does not subs­tan­ti­vely affect the analy­sis.